Walk from the Buses to Studios Entrance Too Much?

I’m kinda worried about the amount of walking involved from the bus area to the entrance of MGM Studios. (Yeah, I’m one of those “MGM Studios” people who REFUSE to call it anything else.) I’ve heard that it’s been made longer than in the past because of the gondola construction.

Now, thankfully, I’m renting a off-site scooter for myself so I won’t have any issues, but I worry about the people who can’t walk that far to the ECV/wheelchair rental. Or people that have breathing issues that can’t walk far either in the intense Florida heat. What will they do?

Does Disney still provide the “Courtesy Wheelchairs” to the Rental shop? Did they increase the amount of “Courtesy Wheelchairs” to compensate for the added distance?

Has anyone been to the Studios and if so, what was your experience? Was it too much of a walk, or was it bearable until the construction is finished?

I’m kinda worried about the amount of walking involved from the bus area to the entrance of MGM Studios. (Yeah, I’m one of those “MGM Studios” people who REFUSE to call it anything else.) I’ve heard that it’s been made longer than in the past because of the gondola construction.

Now, thankfully, I’m renting a off-site scooter for myself so I won’t have any issues, but I worry about the people who can’t walk that far to the ECV/wheelchair rental. Or people that have breathing issues that can’t walk far either in the intense Florida heat. What will they do?

Does Disney still provide the “Courtesy Wheelchairs” to the Rental shop? Did they increase the amount of “Courtesy Wheelchairs” to compensate for the added distance?

Has anyone been to the Studios and if so, what was your experience? Was it too much of a walk, or was it bearable until the construction is finished?

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How do people handle the walk? I would hope they would show some personal responsibility and bring a mobility device?

Some people have too much pride to use a mobility device, while others travel with people who say that they don’t need such a thing.

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But how do they get to the buses from their resort room, etc? I'm just not understanding the question, I guess, sorry. If they can't walk far, are they expecting WDW to provide transportation chairs everywhere? And if they can't walk from the bus stop, and are too proud to bring a device, how are they going to walk the parks? Wouldn't they be too proud to rent one in the parks too? I get the pride thing - my mom would never agree to use a wheelchair or ECV, so we don't plan on taking her to the parks any time soon. She'd most likely complain about the walking, how fast we walk, how we don't wait for her, how fat she is, how old she is (these are her words, not mine - she says this all the time) and then she'd complain about the weather too, just for the fun of it.

Some people have too much pride to use a mobility device, while others travel with people who say that they don’t need such a thing.

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That’s their issue to deal with, not Disney’s. If someone has too much pride to use mobility aids when needed, or let their families convince them not to use them when needed, that’s their problem to solve and no one else’s.

But how do they get to the buses from their resort room, etc? I'm just not understanding the question, I guess, sorry. If they can't walk far, are they expecting WDW to provide transportation chairs everywhere? And if they can't walk from the bus stop, and are too proud to bring a device, how are they going to walk the parks? Wouldn't they be too proud to rent one in the parks too? I get the pride thing - my mom would never agree to use a wheelchair or ECV, so we don't plan on taking her to the parks any time soon. She'd most likely complain about the walking, how fast we walk, how we don't wait for her, how fat she is, how old she is (these are her words, not mine - she says this all the time) and then she'd complain about the weather too, just for the fun of it.

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I guess they “bench hunt”, which to me doesn’t sound like much of a vacation, especially since you’d miss out on a lot.

I’m kinda worried about the amount of walking involved from the bus area to the entrance of MGM Studios. (Yeah, I’m one of those “MGM Studios” people who REFUSE to call it anything else.) I’ve heard that it’s been made longer than in the past because of the gondola construction.

Now, thankfully, I’m renting a off-site scooter for myself so I won’t have any issues, but I worry about the people who can’t walk that far to the ECV/wheelchair rental. Or people that have breathing issues that can’t walk far either in the intense Florida heat. What will they do?

Does Disney still provide the “Courtesy Wheelchairs” to the Rental shop? Did they increase the amount of “Courtesy Wheelchairs” to compensate for the added distance?

Has anyone been to the Studios and if so, what was your experience? Was it too much of a walk, or was it bearable until the construction is finished?

Click to expand...

Besides the Disney gondola construction build next to the lake, they also demolished the area where the trams dropped folks off.

They also demolished the old bus stops and handicap parking while building new bus stops with cover and temporary bus stops that have umbrella covers. I assume when the new bus stops are completed, they will change the temporary bus stops for outside resort bus stops.

In June 2018 I was dropped off at the temporary bus stops. At the time they didn't have much in the way of coverage like they do now. Nor did they have much in the way of handicap line entrance.

There were a lot of tarps along a lot of fences along the temporary walkway from the bus stop to the DHS main entrance.

You might have already seen these photos, but the first one below is recent from bioreconstruct.

In this photo you can't see the main entrance to the DHS park, but on the top, left you can see the roof to the new Disney Gondola structure. And below that may be a building for restrooms or some sort of customer service.

And below that and going to the left you can see the three canopies for the new DHS bus stops.

Further left you can see the temporary bus stops that I used last June 2018, but there were no umbrella covers.

The arrows show where guests can walk from the DHS park to the temporary bus stops and the temporary detour to the sidewalk that goes to the Boardwalk and Epcot areas.

Around the very top yellow arrow on the left shows where the temporary handicap parking is located.

And further to the left is the leveled areas where the handicap parking, old bus stops and old trap drop-offs used to be.

I use my own scooter, so I didn't have to worry about the distance, but if I had to walk it without any places to rest along the way, I would grabbing the chain link fence to hold myself up.

The top left arrow also shows the tarped covered fences designating the walkway to the DHS park entrance.

I don't remember seeing any benches.

I remember over ten years ago when they started removing all of the benches at Magic Kingdom that I used when walking with my cane before I started renting a ECV.

They removed the benches that were all around the center circle street. Then they removed the benches along Mainstreet, etc. The only thing that I could figure is that they wanted to make more walking areas that the benches might have blocked during large crowds.

This looks like previous demolition of the old Disney Tram drop-off several months ago.

I remember someone posting this marked photo showing where the Disney Trams were dropping off and picking up guests. And the blue line showing the walkway back to the DHS entrance.

You can also see all of the demolished.

And the temporary bus drop-off and pick-up area in the top left with the tarped fences marking part of the walkway from right to left to the blue line leading to the DHS park entrance.

This just an older, wider view showing Epcot in relation to DHS and the ongoing construction.

This is what the path looked like with the tarped fences on each side.

And finally the Disney Resort "temporary" bus stops sign.

Disney Pop Century was bus stop number 25 at the furtherest end of the temporary bus stop on the one side.

And Fort Wilderness Campground appears bus stop number one at the furtherest end of the temporary bus stop on the opposite side.

The walk is far now. I am confused though how someone can walk all day in the park but not walk from the bus to the park? Do they all rent wheelchairs from the park?

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Some guests don't own their own wheelchair nor mobility scooter, nor may they rent one from offsite. They might have to wait until they get to the parks entrance to rent one.

Over a decade ago, I just used a cane to get around the WDW campus. I remember plenty of benches along the way from one of my resort room until I got to the resort bus stop. They also used to have plenty of benches at all of the parks.

Not anymore.

I guess you might have to have a similar experience to understand.

I eventually started renting park ECV's, but the true freedom was renting from an outside vendor that gave me complete freedom to go anywhere that I wanted to go. I was able to visit other resorts during the holidays and go around the lakes at the resorts, etc.

I would love to have a healthier, younger body instead. But wouldn't we all.

Over a decade ago, I just used a cane to get around the WDW campus. I remember plenty of benches along the way from one of my resort room until I got to the resort bus stop. They also used to have plenty of benches at all of the parks.

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Wow all those trees! I had forgotten about that...it's pretty amazing. I still find WDW better than US/IOA for finding a place to sit but yes they've definitely done away with the benches.

There's so much walking involved whatever park you go to (DHS or other) that a person who has problems getting to the bus area at DHS is probably going to struggle elsewhere also. It's definitely a hike at DHS now.

Great pictures. Besides - I don't know how much extra - space, I wonder what their reasoning was from removing all those seating areas. When we wait for someone or need to rest a minute, we find ourselves sitting on a rock somewhere or leaning on something.

Sigh, back when the parks were pretty and calm. It's a shame they ripped out trees and benches so that we are treated as herds to move around instead of people enjoying a well themed park.

So, if people are showing up to the parks with the plan to rent a mobility device at the parks, are they fit enough in their regular life not to need a device? If so, I'd think the walk from HC parking to the gate wouldn't be that big of a deal, would it? And if you used a mobility device at home, you'd know you'd need it at WDW, and bring it with you? But I guess people going to WDW the first time might not know how much walking is involved if they didn't do the research first - which irks me that they'd probably do research for other vacations, but not WDW, LOL! So I guess a few wheelchairs should be available outside of the park, but the policing of them would be a huge expense, IMO.

But how do they get to the buses from their resort room, etc? I'm just not understanding the question, I guess, sorry. If they can't walk far, are they expecting WDW to provide transportation chairs everywhere? And if they can't walk from the bus stop, and are too proud to bring a device, how are they going to walk the parks? Wouldn't they be too proud to rent one in the parks too? I get the pride thing - my mom would never agree to use a wheelchair or ECV, so we don't plan on taking her to the parks any time soon. She'd most likely complain about the walking, how fast we walk, how we don't wait for her, how fat she is, how old she is (these are her words, not mine - she says this all the time) and then she'd complain about the weather too, just for the fun of it.

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The difference is that there are benches and places to rest between their room and the bus stops, from the footage I have seen this doesn't exist on the walkway from the buses to the entrance of the park.

Some may feel that they don't need such a device outside the parks and plan on renting when they get there, but then they are presented with this long walk.

The difference is that there are benches and places to rest between their room and the bus stops, from the footage I have seen this doesn't exist on the walkway from the buses to the entrance of the park.

Some may feel that they don't need such a device outside the parks and plan on renting when they get there, but then they are presented with this long walk.

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Don't stay at Pop Century if you need benches - there are few there, and most are designated smoking areas.

I was there on Saturday. The walk was quite long. So much so that even my 9yo noticed. (Believe me when I say, that is saying a lot.) I was staying at Pop, so we were used to always being the furthest. With these stops, I think part of the issue is not seeing your goal in sight. That being said, we did it and took a midday break, so we did it several times. I saw several wheelchairs available.